The Astronomer's Burns
by ahyeon
Summary: To Yamamoto Takeshi, life was best understood as a game that he had to beat. There was a delicate balance between his growing circle of eccentric friends and his high-strung equally eccentric idolstar older sister. / character study, drabble series, oc
1. teen idle

**1\. teen idle**

* * *

Takeshi raised a curious brow as he watched his team mates in the locker room. The boys had crowded around the bench ever since the coach had dismissed them, sharply whispering to each other with cheeky little grins and shoves. Every once in a while, a senior would walk over past them and make a round of noises that ranged from reluctant approval to resigned sighs laced with a quick apologetic look to the younger boy.

Takeshi didn't know what to make of it- so he look on with a sort of innocent curiousness.

He didn't know any of these boys; none of his friends from the Elementary were interested in baseball and he had only talked to a handful of them since starting out on the team. It was the beginning of the year, and only this morning did his dad remind him that some people had the tendency to stick to whatever was familiar in an unfamiliar environment. He could still hear his old man's voice ranting off over the sound of the sink and another digitized hymn that joined soon after over the phone. With shaky fingers, Yamamoto Takeshi swallowed back his hesitation and surged forward.

Tossing his towel back into the locker, he took a step towards the small crowd.

"Oi, Yamamoto! What do you think of ' _asari_ ' ?" One of the boys- Ogino Satoshi, looked up eagerly as he sat beside him. He watched as Satoshi wrestled a bit with the other boys before a magazine was thrown into his face. He heard his team mates all take in a collective gulp of air. His eyes focused in on the image before him.

The unrestrained laugh that escaped his mouth was enough for that tenseness to dissipate.

Yamamoto Takeshi had long grown used to being called the 'sushi man's kid during his Elementary days. The adults down market street all knew of the Yamamotos and the balls of energy Tsuyoshi called 'his roundabout kids'. True, he had long grown out of his habit of hiding behind his sister's legs when meeting strangers but there were some things that wouldn't change. Case in point, how the upperclassmen had easily managed to wrangle Takeshi into joining the baseball team the moment they saw him enter the school because they knew first hand how enthusiastic the teenager felt about the sport.

His sister might've had their hearts but it was Yamamoto Takeshi who held their baseball-shaped souls.

On a more honest note, when the magazine revealed the disgruntled image of his older sister, Takeshi didn't quite know how to react. So he opted for the path that bordered hysteria and awkward hissing.

Takeshi, to that day, had never thought much of his older sister's idol career. In fact, he couldn't care less about whatever Yuzuki was doing as long as she was doing whatever she loved best.

Between her constant calls home and reign over her little brother's phone bill, it felt like to him that she had never truly left his life anyway. The ever growing presence of posters promoting her newest endorsement only solidified this fact. Somewhere along the line, he had stopped listening to the adults comparing the two siblings and made a game out of their achievements.

So what if she couldn't attend the school festival? Yuzuki would without a fail show up to the city tournaments held by the local elementaries to cheer him phonecall home involved the flaunting of their latest trophies which extended to her stage persona _asari_ endlessly bragging about how her little brother just recently won a school race and him bragging about his 'cool sister' during show and tell.

From the neighbourhood tutor with too many volunteer hours to raising idol star, it never occurred to him until now, that this would be his defining moment until the game that solidified his position as Namimori's youngest Baseball Ace.

 _(-and idol to the eyes of_ his _soon to be flourishing local fanbase-)_

"Nee-chan?" The words tumbled out of his mouth like they were naturally meant to be on the tip of his tongue. His eyes scanned the article before him and locked onto the words 'provocative' and 'queen'. They rolled over his head and triggered another airy laugh that racked his sides. "She never did like doing swimsuits."

" _N_ _ee-chan_?" The team repeated in astonishment.

Yamamoto Takeshi only looked at them with slightly wide slightly sheepish eyes.


	2. baseball god

**2\. baseball god**

* * *

Once on a sleepless night, Yuzuki laid him to bed with a story of a nameless god who saved the world with baseball.

" _But first, lets make it clear that_ _the God is very particular about the people they loves best, you see..._ " He remembers nodding eagerly, tucked into the crook of his sister's body and tickled with every steady heartbeat. He goes through the notions like clockwork remembering every detail of that night, " _so you can't ever think for a minute that the Baseball-god will leave you because you're what they loves the most. Besides you've got something in common..._ "

" _We do?_ " The door creaks open slowly, and the two fall into an immediate slumber before it shuts once again and he lets loose a long string of giggles. He can still feel Yuzuki's thin fingers pinching his nose.

 _"Of course you do,"_ the tale begins with those words. The dream spirals, the rain continues to fall, the two giggle like hearty children under a glowing moon, _"you're both baseball-nerds."_

He listens, latches on to every word of the God traversing through worlds and overcoming every obstacle with nothing but a baseball bat and a gaggle of baseball-glove-friends. He remembers the feeling of his head being tucked under her chin: listening to her heart play every staccato and watching as she made the story of the god come to life on the shadows that plagued his walls.

" _So the Baseball-god swung and swung, they swung so hard that every fire became a star,_ " if he closed his eyes at this very moment, he would probably still see the shadow of a diamond ring on his wall all those nights ago. Still hear his bewildered gasp as his sister turned the ring this way and that, splattering prisms all over his room.

" _Was it a homerun?_ "

 _"No, not yet. But the God was close to home base. There was still one more star to hang,"_ Yuzuki patiently whispered, setting the ring down and placing a circular orange object in front of the light. _"She forgot to hang the Sun."_

 _"The Baseball-god can't forget the sun!"_ He had protested, obviously miffed. The memory still made him laugh. _"That's the most important one!"_

 _"You're right. So you know what the baseball-gloves did?"_

 _"What?"_

 _"They rallied together the best baseball players,"_ she started, twirling the orange object this way and that in between her fingers, " _and at first it was hard. But they kept trying. And trying. And trying. And they never gave up, Takeshi. Not even when the other gods came and told the Baseball-God that it was pointless. Because they knew that_ this _counted for something..._ "

" _Why didn't the other gods and the baseball players want to help?_ "

 _"Because when the stars fell, so did the rain. But rain is never a bad thing, you know? Some people don't get it, because they don't want to understand."_

 _"So the Baseball-God_ made _them understand, right?"_

 _"Mmhmm,"_ She set the object down here, and for the next few moments all that filled the room was the crumpling of paper as it bounced against the hardwood floor. _"Because without the rain, the light can't catch rainbows. But what light is there when there is no sun up?_

 _So the Baseball-god made them understand. And when they saw how the Baseball-god always, without fail, went out to try to swing out the biggest fire, they slowly began to see the bigger picture. And before the fire could even think about spreading, the players and the other gods swung and swung and swung, until plop-_

 _The sky was filled once again with the bright light of a giant glowing baseball."_

Yuzuki snorted, the sound still echoing in his ears. Her voice had broken at the end, into something that resembled a sob and they didn't speak for a long time. His memory was filled with the still lull of her steady breathing, and it was a longer wait before she could purely enunciate her frustrations. He remembered, still young and naive, cutting in with a mystified,

 _"Do you think mom was one of them?"_

Her answer, slow and careful, would stick with him for years to come.

 _"I think Mom was already waiting in the catcher's box."_

* * *

 **a/n:** if I tried this crap with my cousins, I'd get slapped


	3. lonely planet

**3- lonely planet**

 _that one time Gokudera tricked Dino into taking Takeshi to Italy_

* * *

"Wow, your house is huge!" Takeshi laughed in amazement as the men ushered him in, luggage and an equally excited mafia boss in tow.

"Make yourself at home." The Italian laughed at the teen's reaction- he had a similar reaction when he first found out that the main mansion was part of his inheritance. "Keep your shoes on! Come on, I'll show you your room and then I'll take you out for dinner."

Romario let out a low chuckle at the sight before him, warmed at the prospect that the future Tenth Vongola boss wasn't the only one their boss was planning on making a bond with.

* * *

Takeshi liked to entertain the thought that Dino was what Yuzuki could be if she was a taller tattooed blond.

And a man.

"What part of Italy are we in?" Dino paused, twirling the noodles and let a small smile envelop his face. Takeshi smiled back.

"Sicily." The younger boy made a small sound of awe, the man continued, "I'll take you around to see the sights though. What do you want to see first?"

There was a stunned moment of silence before he whispered, "pizza."

"You could've just ordered that." Dino laughed.

"No, the weeeee-" he leaned sideways, arms up like a noodle in his seat. Dino stared before a look of comprehension blossomed.

"Pisa! Yah, sure of course! Anywhere else?"

Takeshi hmmed , remembering an old schedule and a phone call. A location. Milan? Sometime this week... Quickly shaking his head, the baseball prodigy went back to eating his food and beaming at the man before him before asking to be surprised.

Dino didn't say anything about the lonely look in the younger boy's eyes as he thought about new places to take him.

He also didn't say anything when he overheard the last bits of conversation after dropping the boy off at the airport at the end of the trip.

"Remember to get some sleep, sis! I saw your walk on TV, I'm sure Dad's going to be proud."


	4. STRIKE ONE

**4- STRIKE** **ONE**

 _the first chronological strike in the breakdown of Yamamoto Takeshi_

* * *

Yuzuki and Takeshi are known to the neighbors as The Inseparables.

One is never seen without the other and where one goes the other is sure to be trailing not far behind.

Which is why it comes as such a shock when weeks pass by and the boy comes home cheerfully through the front doors of the restaurant- tracking mud all over the entrance and greeting the uncle from the Meat Shop all by his lonesome. No secondary pair of footsteps come sprinting around the corner, desperately trying to catch the boy who obviously made a break for it before she got him with a loose water bottle.

The clock strikes three and Yamamoto Takeshi arrives alone once again.

"I'm home!" The boy cries cheerily, teeth sparkling and cheeks red from the sprint home. The sight makes the older customers swoon. Takeshi has always been an adorable toddler. Tack on his penchant to shy away from strangers but chatter endlessly whilst in the presence of his family- it was a wonder how no one in their small town tried to kidnap him yet.

"Takeshi!" His dad would bellow, quickly wiping his hands to embrace his only son. It's a sight that's becoming much of a routine to his three o'clock customers. The smiles that envelope their faces after the child lets out a round of giggles and escapes out of his father's kisses tells him that they don't mind at all.

Time stops as the boy skirts around his father's legs, greeting a hearty hello to the kitchen and waiting staff before loudly retelling his day at school for all to hear.

"Today we went to the zoo!" The boy was telling the man who owned the old antique shop a ways away from the Shopping District. Arms outstretched far above his head and loudly reenacting every event that transpired on Namimori Elementary's annual trip to the petting zoo.

Takeshi was a shy child by heart, the sight of his son opening up to strangers in such a vivid and outspoken way made Tsuyoshi's heart skip several beats.

He'd never been as close to his son as he would've liked.

Before his wife passed, Takeshi was never afraid to speak his mind. He was more curious than his small body could handle and was able to talk a mile a minute; more times than not the family would panic thinking they lost the toddler only to find him calling after a street vendor's puppy. Tsuyoshi couldn't even begin to count how many years Takeshi has taken from him during his toddler days alone.

In those days, his curiosity powered him through his shyness. The stark difference between the child the entire district loved to the quiet boy who played with the meat shop vendor's nephew was enough of a tell on how comfortable Takeshi was around them to open up in that way.

Then his wife passed away and that boy retreated.

Yuzuki becomes his next pillar. Always sticking to her like glue on paper.

Only talking like he used to whenever she gave him her full undivided attention. Only going to her whenever something popped up. Always running back in and out of her legs whenever they ventured off to new places.

Takeshi had never been close enough to his father for that. He was never the first or even second choice for his boy.

At best, he'd be the one that scared the monsters away. Or the one that was thrown to the monsters.

He was the one that made sure he was tucked in soundly as he laid in his sister's bed thinking no one would find out that he'd snuck out of his bed again at 3 am.

He thought he preferred it that way.

It wasn't until Yuzuki became an official trainee did things change.

He was terrified.

Takeshi had changed ever since Yuzuki left. After a soft explanation that trainees weren't allowed any form of communication until the holidays because of their busy schedules and that any visits outside of emergencies were strongly discouraged by her manager, he wasn't sure how the young boy would react.

As a father, he thought those commands were insane. As the father of the duo soon to be formerly known as the Inseparables, his heart shattered.

At first, the boy was silent. Emotions flashed through the boy's eyes, a small sound between a scream and a sob escaped out of him before a calm washed over his features. He only had to look up at and nod for the message to come across from brother to sister.

Takeshi might've not said a word but Yuzuki had burst into tears and held onto him for dear life.

And then she was gone.

And then it was just the two of them.

"How is he holding up?" One of his regulars asked, eyes trained on the young boy still chatting away to Strange Old Kawahira.

Tsuyoshi only smiled with tired eyes.

He's lonely beyond belief, he wanted to answer back, but instead he recounted that first night after Yuzuki left.

Small feet padding down the hallways, a quiet voice calling out to his sister before stopping right outside her door. A sob filling the air before the patter of feet went off again. Echoeing down into his ears and fading behind a closed door.

The hall light turned off.

Tsuyoshi didn't sleep a wink as his son desperately tried to stifle his sobs in the quiet of his empty room.

"He's doing ok," was what came out after the boy paused in his story about the rabbits, turning to his father as if sensing his gaze and letting loose a wide smile. Waving his hands back and forth in every display of happiness that made his chest bubble.

And he was. Doing ok.

But that still didn't mean that enough was enough and that he didn't venture off into his son's room that night to lay along side him. His arm tucking his son into his larger body and staring at the starlit ceiling Yuzuki had installed before she left.

That didn't mean that Takeshi didn't still pad through the hallways calling out for a sister who would no longer be there to chase away his nightmares.

It didn't mean his son was ok with coming home alone whilst everyone else got picked up by their older siblings or parents.

It just meant that he didn't complain.

That kind of loneliness - the kind that Tsuyoshi couldn't help with- didn't make any of it ok.

So when he laid awake in bed that night and listened to his son pad down the hall, he was shocked to hear the added steps. The absence of the pause. The slight struggle before his bedroom door was preyed open and his son standing there lit by the hallway light, stuffed animal and blanket in hand.

"Dad." was all Takeshi needed to say before finding himself back into his father's arms.


End file.
